It would also be a marker of the club doing something positive to back Conte and start the rebuild....Oh, and the cider's fine....just fine.
Every time we've needed one this season it ain't happened... Chelsea (after the Palace game) Arsenal (after the Chelsea game) West Ham (after the Vietesse game) Man Utd (after the West Ham game) Mura (to qualify for the knock out stages of the ECL) Chelsea (1st Leg of semi) Morcombe (after Chelsea game) Chelsea (2nd leg) No way are we doing it Sunday
Interesting comment from Fiorentina owner Rocco Commisso about why he sacked Gattusso after just 23 days, namely how Gattuso gave him a list of Jorge Mendes clients to sign and also quoted the price he wanted to sign them for - that would be the same Jorge Mendes who also happens to be Gattuso's agent, hence Commisso sacked him as his immediate thought was that Gattuso was more interested in helping Mendes afford a new yacht than help Fiorentina He also threw in this humdinger of a quote: "Today the sport is awash in cash and features an international cast of millionaire players. Success can be bought and, nowadays, supporters blame owners for not buying it."
I think I posted not so long ago on here or another thread where I felt all three of Jose, Nuno and Conte probably didn’t realise how messed up our squad was from the outside and only found out the issues when actually in the job and funnily enough BBC journalist, Alistair McGowan, asked if Conte realised the scale of the task at hand going into the job during the NLD pre-match presser: Conte’s response: “When you are outside you can imagine the situation. When you are inside you understand very well. I made my evaluations. I think no words but facts and we have to work to improve the situation that I found here.” It sounds as I thought, Conte probably didn’t realise just how bad this squad is and how bad some of the players (physically/ mentally/ talent-wise) are until actually working with them and I reckon it was similar for Jose and Nuno too.
I think that we've also got a squad that's unsuitable for defensive-minded managers. Why we keep hiring them despite that is beyond me.
I don’t think we’ve got a squad for an attacking one though either. I also think Conte’s style has actually been relatively attack minded despite the formation being one with defensive solidity in mind, we’ve just not got the players to feed our attackers well enough, especially in the big games.
The issue there is all our CMs move the ball on with similar short, quick passes that on the one hand makes it easy to swap in Winks or Lo Celso for Skipp or Hojbjerg - but the lack of variety can easily get exposed, especially if we play a three-man midfield as we did in our last couple of games Realistically we need a Dembele or a Huddlestone as an option so we can move the ball in different ways and change our passing patterns
I think we’re still searching for balance, part of that is team setup and part of that is players. Like I said on another thread the other day, I think 343 works as a counterattacking formation with our current players and can work as a possession-based formation if you have 2 elite CMs who can play even when outnumbered in midfield. It also asks a lot of the CBs to maintain focus because of the pressure it can invite if the midfield gets overwhelmed. For most matches I’d rather we play some form of 352. That can be a 3142 or a 3412. So basically playing with a 6 and two 8s or two 6s and a 10. In the former with current players you’d be looking at Winks or Skipp to sit and then Alli or Lo Celso as 8s to link the play and make runs in behind. In the latter you’d pick two of Winks, Skipp and Højbjerg as 6s and then probably Gio as a 10 because he’s the best of a bad bunch and has the workrate to help in midfield if we’re getting outnumbered. I’d be more comfortable with us moving to a more possession-based system for most games and even against teams who dominate the ball more I think the 352 helps us with numbers in midfield to relieve the pressure from the defence. If we had the Poch-era back 3 we could probably get away with inviting more pressure with 343 but we don’t, so the extra midfield body (as with Liverpool) helps us match up. Either way we obviously need to improve player quality but I think we have the players to have more possession and use it better if we train and setup for it.
I think we need a Dembele and an Eriksen, or in an ideal world a hybrid version of the pair if one exists. Anyone know any dodgy scientists with experience in cloning and mixing dna?
I also want to see us go 352, the only issue though is that we don't really have the options to make that work too well either in my opinion. For instance one of Ndombele or Lo Celso in front of Skipp and Hojbjerg would "make sense" on paper but in the flesh it absolutely doesn't as they're woeful and neither produces enough to make it worthwhile to drop Lucas for (I'm excluding Son's injury FWIW). It's why for the life of me I've no idea why we haven't already made a purchase in that central area this window, whether it be an 8 or a 10. For me that's the biggest area of need and yet it seems to be nowhere on the list of priorities, with LCB, RWB and ST being the three main positions the media seem to think are.
Well for what it's worth, I'd be more than happy to see him (or it?) given a go over some of our current options... couldn't be any worse.
I also think 352 demands a lot more from the FBs and we don’t have the right side to make it work perfectly.
If Emerson could just work on his crossing he'd be a damn good player. Frustrating how little he beats the first man. Defensively he's fine, in fact I didn't appreciate how well he's done defensively until the other day, already ranked fifth highest for tackles in the Prem and he wasn't with us for the first three games, we've kept a lot of clean sheets too in the Prem with him playing in most games since arriving. Athletically he's also fine, gets up and down with no qualms... but that final ball is ****ing infuriating so far. Sort that out and he's a baller.
Yeah I agree. Great engine, solid defensively. Hopefully he can improve the crossing side of things, we’ve seen him on the drills the last few weeks and I hope that continues. I’m really not sold on Traore as a RWB, he has pace and the ability to beat a man over Emerson but I worry about his engine for a man of that bulk, and his defensive discipline and ability in the tackle are unknown to me.
Ultimately I’d rather have him than Doherty but would rather we looked for an actual specialist. He’s also not as young as I always think he is.
I can’t wait for this bunch of players(give or take a few), to finish their careers so our fans can stop blaming the formation every week as if that’s the problem with these spineless turds
When asked about his future Conte replied; "I prefer to live in present and not the future" That noise you can hear are pitch forks being sharpened
